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Freud: The Secret Passion
| distributor = Universal Pictures | released = | runtime = 139 minutes | country = United States | language = English }} Freud: The Secret Passion, also known as Freud, is a 1962 American biographical film drama based on the life of the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, directed by John Huston and starring Montgomery Clift as Freud. The original script was written by Jean-Paul Sartre, but Sartre withdrew his involvement in the film after disagreements with Huston, and his name was removed from the credits. The film was entered into the 13th Berlin International Film Festival. Plot This pseudo-biographical movie depicts Sigmund Freud's life from 1885 to 1890. At this time, most of his colleagues refused to treat hysteric patients, believing their symptoms to be ploys for attention. Freud, however, learns to use hypnosis to uncover the reasons for the patients' neuroses through his mentor and friend Josef Breuer. His main patient in the film is a young woman who refused to drink water and is plagued by a recurrent nightmare. The story compresses the years it took Freud (Montgomery Clift) to develop his psychoanalytic theories into what seems like a few months. Nearly every neurotic symptom imaginable manifests itself in one patient, Cecily Koertner (Susannah York). She is sexually repressed, hysterical, and fixated on her father. Freud works extensively with her, developing one hypothesis after another. Also shown is Freud's home life with his wife Martha (Susan Kohner), with whom he alternately discusses his theories, and patronizes when she reads one of his papers. Cast *Montgomery Clift ... Sigmund Freud *Susannah York ... Cecily Koertner *Larry Parks ... Dr. Joseph Breuer *Susan Kohner ... Martha Freud *Eileen Herlie ... Frau Ida Koertner *Fernand Ledoux ... Dr. Charcot *David McCallum ... Carl von Schlossen *Rosalie Crutchley ... Frau Freud *David Kossoff ... Jacob Freud *Joseph Furst ... Herr Jacob Koertner *Alexander Mango ... Babinsky *Leonard Sachs ... Brouhardier *Eric Portman ... Dr. Theodore Meynert *John Huston ... Narrator (voice) *Victor Beaumont ... Dr. Guber *Allan Cuthbertson ... Wilkie *Maria Perschy ... Magda *Moira Redmond ... Nora Wimmer Production history In 1958, John Huston decided to make a film about the life of the young Sigmund Freud, and asked Jean-Paul Sartre to write a summary of a projected scenario. Sartre submitted a synopsis of 95 pages, which was accepted, but later completed a finished script that, if filmed, would have amounted to a running time of five hours, which Huston considered far too long. Huston suggested cuts, but Sartre submitted an even longer script of eight hours, justifying the even longer version by saying, "On peut faire un film de quatre heures s'il s'agit de ''Ben Hur, mais le public de Texas ne supporterait pas quatre heures de complexes"'' ("We can make a film of four hours in the case of Ben Hur, but the Texas public couldn't stand four hours of complexes.").Sartre, Le Scénario, 10; Scenario. viii. Huston and Sartre quarrelled, and Sartre withdrew his name from the film's credits.Roudinesco, Elisabeth. Jacques Lacan & Co: A History of Psychoanalysis in France, 1925–1985. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990, p. 166 Nevertheless, many key elements from Sartre's script survive in the finished film, for instance the creation of a composite patient, Cecily, who combines features of Freud's patients Anna O., Elisabeth von R., Dora, et al.http://www.asharperfocus.com/Freud.html Background The film heavily compresses events, cases and acquaintances early in Freud's career, spanning from his work at the Vienna General Hospital under Theodor Meynert during the mid-1880s, through his research into hysteria and his seduction theory along with Breuer, up until his development of infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex around the turn of the century that became the basis for his fundamental Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, first published in 1905. The character of Cecily Körtner is based upon a number of early patients of Freud's, most heavily drawing on the Anna O. case but also Dora and others. Similarly, the character of Josef Breuer and his role as mentor and friend in Freud's life as portrayed by Larry Parks is in fact a combination of the real Breuer with Wilhelm Fliess. Reception Critical reception Accolades Freud was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 35th Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay (lost to Divorce, Italian Style), and Best Original Score (lost to Lawrence of Arabia). Among other awards, the film was also nominated for 4 Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama (Susannah York), Best Motion Picture Director (John Huston), and Best Supporting Actress (Susan Kohner). Reception in France Élisabeth Roudinesco comments that Freud: The Secret Passion, "did not have any success. And yet the black and white photography of Douglas Slocombe recaptures superbly the baroque universe of fin de siècle Vienna. As for Montgomery Clift, he portrays an anguished, somber and fragile Freud, closer to the James Dean of Rebel without a Cause than to the mummified figure imposed by the official historians of psychoanalysis: a character, in any event, more Sartrean than Jonesian. The work was distributed to the movie houses of Paris at the beginning of June 1964, two weeks before Lacan's foundation of the Ėcole freudienne de Paris. It went completely unnoticed by the psychoanalysts of Paris, who failed to find in it the hero of their imagination." Sartre did not see the film.Cohen-Solal, Annie. Sartre: A Life. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1987, p. 385 Soundtrack The mostly dissonant, atonal score to Freud was one of the earliest works by composer Jerry Goldsmith. It garnered Goldsmith his first Oscar nomination, which he lost to the score Lawrence Of Arabia that was done by fellow rookie composer Maurice Jarre, who, like Goldsmith, would go on to become one of the film industry's most successful and respected composers. The "Main Title" from Freud, as well as the tracks Charcot's Show and Desperate Case''Kirgo, Julie (2009). Booklet to the 2009 Deluxe Edition of the OST to ''Freud, published by Varèse Sarabande Records and USI B Music Publishing (BMI) were later purchased and reused without consent of Goldsmith by director Ridley Scott for the acid blood scene and others in the film Alien (1979), also scored by Goldsmith.[http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/alien.html Alien] soundtrack review at Filmtracks.com. Retrieved February 22, 2011. Home media Having previously been unavailable in a home media format, Freud: The Secret Passion was eventually released in the UK by Transition Digital Media in a 1.78:1 letter-boxed, non-anamorphic 4:3 format, on a Region 2 DVD edition on April 23, 2012. See also * List of American films of 1962 References Further reading *Holland, Norman N. (1994). [http://www.asharperfocus.com/Freud.html John Huston, Freud, 1962] (adapted essay from an earlier version published in How to See Huston's Freud: Perspectives on John Huston, Ed. Stephen Cooper. Perspectives on Film Series. New York: G. K. Hall, 1994. 164-83.) External links *"Huston, Sartre and the Freud Scenario - The story behind Sartre and Huston's "collaboration" on the script for "Freud" *''Freud: The Secret Passion at Rotten Tomatoes * * Category:1960s drama films Category:1960s historical films Category:1962 films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American drama films Category:American historical films Category:English-language films Category:American biographical films Category:American films Category:Films directed by John Huston Category:Cultural depictions of Sigmund Freud Category:Cultural depictions of Josef Breuer Category:Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Category:Films set in the 1880s Category:Films set in 1890 Category:Films set in Vienna Category:Biographical films about physicians Category:Films featuring hypnosis